SCADA, Telematics & GPS Technologies

The Cheap Vegetable Gardner wanted more automation than their previous PS2 controller based grow system. This time they set out to design a full featured, compact grow controller that can measure temperature and humidity as well as control a heat lamp, fan, and water pump. An Arduino provides USB connectivity and interfaces the solid state relays and sensors. The assembled project all fits in a box but we are left wondering how much heat the four SSRs generate and will it be a problem?

source: hackaday

[Don] had some Serial RFID readers that he needed to work and be powered by USB. He went out and purchased a simple serial to USB converter, but was left with the problem of the operating voltage. He supplies the schematics on his site for his solution. Basically he gutted the converter and integrated it all with the appropriate voltage broken out. The final project is nice, using the serial to USB convert as the project box and even including a nice LED to show when an RFID tag has been read.

source: Hack a Day

This cute little project, shows us how to create a motion activated alarm that plays the mario brothers theme and flashes some lights. he’s using an attiny13a for the brains, and a cool mario mushroom candy tin for the body. you can see it in action after the break.

source: JARV.org

[florin] was given the task of repairing a gps unit that wouldn’t boot up. what he found was unfortunately a bad processor. fortunately, he was able to make a project out of it. after scavenging the good bits, the gps module and the lcd, he set about making it a usb device. he now has an eeepc with gps.

Source: Hack A Day